Five Famous Paintings Swiped in Paris Museum Heist

Posted on May 20, 2010

Somehow, a lone art bandit—or a band of bandits—managed to pull off an impressive five-finger-discount maneuver at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris on Wednesday night, making off with five masterpieces worth a grand total of close to 100 million euros. Sacré bleu! —KA

BBC:

“This is a serious crime to the heritage of humanity,” Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at the Paris Town Hall, told a news conference.

The theft was committed by “one or more individuals who were obviously organised”, Mr Girard said.

He added that investigators were looking into how the museum’s security system and several guards were outsmarted by the thief or thieves.

Mr Girard put the value of the stolen paintings at just under 100m euros (£86m; $123m). They had earlier been estimated to be worth some 500m euros (£431m; $618m).